The other portion accounting for 27 percerut and 25 percent would include the nonprime items enumerated earlier. Regarding salaries and wages restaurants are one of the few large industries that are affected by federal and state laws regulating the minimum wage by virtue of its relatively low employee skill level. Approximately one-quarter of all resraurant workers work at the minimum, compared to about 2 percent of all workers in the private sector. This would include those whose tip income represents a substantial increment to take-home pay. For restaurateurs, the problem is not just one of having to raise hourly wages of those at the bottom of the pay scale but also having to bump up those at higher levels to maintain pay- for- skill in this Thus anydifferentials Thus any change in laws raising low-end wages results in a rise in this key neutra prime cost and must be passed along to customers in higher prices, neutral ized through productivity gains, or absorbed in lower profit margins.